Levelling Up Fund statement
The Leader of Wigan Council, Councillor David Molyneux MBE, said: "We are delighted to have received the full amount of £20m for our Wigan bid, with Haigh Hall as its focal point.
"It marks a significant milestone on our journey and commitment to restore Haigh Hall and create an arts, culture and heritage destination of national significance. We are grateful to the many residents who helped us develop our plan through our engagement events last year and we are delighted that the council's plan and investment has been supported in this way.
"We know how proud our residents are of Haigh Hall and Haigh Woodland Park and its close connection to our borough’s past and future. We are sure everyone will share our excitement with this news.
"These funds will supplement the recent commitment from Wigan Council to match fund (£2m) the £3.78m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for the site.
"Although we are relieved to have received confirmation of the funding for Haigh Hall, our concerns about the LUF system remain, and we would continue to urge the government to find a more appropriate way to deliver the investment local areas like ours deserve without expensive competitive bidding processes."
Regarding Leigh and Ashton-in-Makerfield bids
We submitted three strong bids for this second round of the Levelling Up Fund and are extremely disappointed to have missed out given that the proposals met the government’s criteria.
Both the Leigh and Ashton bids were submitted with the help of local organisations, businesses and communities and Wigan Council will ask for feedback from DLUHC on why they were not successful in this round.
Despite these setbacks, we will continue to support high streets to thrive and deliver improvements that people want to see, while showcasing our spectacular heritage.
In Leigh, the LUF bid formed only part of our long-term vision as outlined by the town’s Strategic Regeneration Framework with a £2m investment in the new Youth Hub facility, £2.5m at Pennington Flash and regeneration of Leigh Town Hall, in recent years.
In Ashton, we remain committed to delivering on the recommendations of the Future High Street Task Force, which helped us develop the LUF bid.
We will continue to explore all avenues available to us regarding key regeneration projects, including external funding, whether that is through further rounds of the LUF or alternatives.
Posted on Wednesday 18th January 2023